Commercial consumer electronic devices or other so-called “off-the-shelf” electronic devices for providing computing operations and communications, both wired and wireless, are well known in the art. Devices such as personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), “smartphones” and tablet personal computers provide computing power, digital storage and user input/output functionality in what is, typically, a size and weight which is conducive to easy portability by an individual user. In addition, so-called “netbooks”, as well as notebook and laptop computers, may provide similar functionality, albeit commonly in a larger form-factor and with greater weight.
Commonly, such devices listed above incorporate a communications module or communications modules to allow the devices to communicate over various wireless communications bands. Standards such as Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, cellular, among others known in the art, provide both protocols and designated frequencies over which communications may occur. In addition, proprietary communications schemes may be developed and fielded independently. Communications modules designed to be consistent with such commercial and proprietary standards may be incorporated into such devices to permit them to communicate wirelessly with other devices similarly designed to communicate according to the various standards.
Electrically active medical devices may similarly be configured to communicate according to commercial and proprietary communication standards. Such medical devices may be involved in communications to transmit data relating to the condition of the medical device as well as the condition of the patient with which the device is associated. In addition, the medical device may be involved with communications to receive commands from external sources pertaining to the function of the medical device, for instance to reprogram the medical device from a first configuration setting to a second configuration setting. The Medical Implant Communication Service (“MICS”) band is commonly used to communicate with an implanted medical device. The Medical Data Service (“MEDS”) is an ultra-low power medical device communication system using the 401-402 megaHertz and/or 405-406 megaHertz bands.
But while medical devices may, like commercial devices, operate according to various communication standards, the standards according to which the medical devices operate may not advantageously be the same as those to which commercial devices operate. While a commercial device may usefully communicate according to, for instance, the Bluetooth communication standard, the power requirements of Bluetooth may make using Bluetooth disadvantageous for an implantable medical device incorporating a relatively small power source. Such an implantable medical device may advantageously utilize a proprietary communication scheme over the MICS/MEDS band instead. By contrast, a smartphone, for instance, which does not commonly communicate with implantable medical devices, and which, as such, may not profitably incorporate a MICS/MEDS band receiver, may not be able to communicate with an implantable medical device.
As a result, communications with implantable medical devices have commonly incorporated proprietary, custom-designed electronic devices instead of commercial, off-the-shelf devices. Custom designed electronic devices tend to cost relatively more for design and manufacture of relatively small numbers of proprietary devices in comparison with the number of commercial devices on the market. Because of the increased cost, there may be a motivation to minimize the number of such custom-designed devices built to a relative minimum in order to save cost. This may tend to limit availability of such custom-designed electronics, reducing a utility in providing the capabilities afforded by such electronics to users other than medical professionals in a clinical setting.